Scott McAdam
2016 - ACES Award of Merit
Lemont, IL
Round Barn Society
Scott McAdam received his bachelor’s degree in horticulture from the University of Illinois in 1979. Scott is the President and Co-owner of McAdam Landscaping, Inc. located in Forest Park, Illinois. McAdam’s Landscaping now has a fleet of thirty-five trucks, ninety employees (including five Illinois Alumni), and maintains 400 residential, commercial, condominium, and industrial locations.
In 7th grade, Scott was mowing lawns and built up to forty lawns per week. McAdam Landscaping was started in 1979 after Scott graduated from the University of Illinois with one truck and two employees. Scott has served his industry as President of the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association as well as serving on the boards of the Illinois Turfgrass Association, Mid-Am Horticultural Trade Show, and the Chicago Flower and Garden Show. His involvement in the Green Industry landed him the 2001 Illinois Landscape Contractors Association Man of the Year Award.
Scott serves his alma mater by providing introductions of the Green Industry to the College of ACES. He started this by serving on the Horticulture Advisory Board for six years then created the NRES Fund for Excellence that raised money for discretionary funds in the Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences department. Scott was also instrumental in hosting and leading the meetings of alumni landscape designers who were designing and creating the landscaping around the McFarland Carillon.
Marise Robbins-Forbes, Director of Development for the Department of Crop Sciences and Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences said, “…Scott was recommended to me early on as a successful business owner, leader of the horticultural industry in Illinois and an Illini who tirelessly has given of his time to assist the College of ACES. I have found this to be wholly true and Scott to be a successful businessman, a generous volunteer of his time to Illinois, Rotary and the horticulture industry, as well as a person dedicated to his wife and two wonderful children.”
